The Business of Keeping Things Fresh in the Philippines [TBS 52]

What if the reason your food isn’t fresher isn’t the farm, but everything in between?

In this episode, we dive into a business almost nobody dreams of starting, yet it quietly powers entire cities. Think traffic jams, melting margins, broken fridges, and a problem so hidden that most consumers never even notice it.

Here’s what we’re unpacking:

• Why traffic in Metro Manila became a business opportunity
• The surprising gap in the “invisible road” your food travels before it reaches you
• How a 40% energy efficiency breakthrough sparked something much bigger
• The pivot that changed everything, from selling cold rooms to renting them by the box
• Why small businesses were willing to pay before the product even landed
• The harsh lessons of trying to sell to big corporations, and why it nearly didn’t work
• Why the Philippines, not Singapore, became the launchpad

And joining us are:

• Jonathan Harvey, a food industry veteran who’s spent over 15 years across Southeast Asia uncovering gaps in the region’s cold chain infrastructure
• Joe Khoo, a former early-stage tech employee with a six-figure exit, who pivoted from VR hardware and sustainability projects into building energy-efficient, self-serve cold hubs

Together, they’re building something deceptively simple, but potentially game-changing for SMEs, food security, and climate tech.

It’s scrappy.

It’s technical.

It’s capital-heavy.

And it almost didn’t work.

If you’ve ever wondered how real founders navigate pivots, funding trade-offs, family responsibilities, and finding product-market fit in an unsexy industry, this episode is for you.

Tune in.

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